One of the drawbacks to being a statistician is that, to count scoring chances, one actually has to watch the game. But that, Thom and I have done, every game this season, either him or myself have been tracking which players were on the ice for scoring chances at both ends.

The response to Anaheim’s firing of Randy Carlyle has been barely contained glee in many quarters. Over at SBNation’s blog Anaheim Calling, the news was inititally celebrated with an ALL CAPS POST. Puck Daddy’s Greg Wyshynski called the decision to swap Carlyle for Bruce Boudreau (fired on Monday by the Washington Capitals) a “genius move.” Helene Elliott opined that the Ducks had tuned Carlyle out.

However good the reasons may have been for firing Randy Carlyle, the decision does not reflect well on Ducks general manager Bob Murray. How so? I’ll explain.

The last time the Preds were in town, Dale Wiese scored. Yeah.
When Wiese's Pieces scores, you know things are going your way.
(Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)

Game Day Recon: Game #25 - Predators @ Canucks

Tonight's game is a tale of two teams going in different directions. While the Vancouver Canucks appear to have turned the ship in the right direction with strong even strength play and stellar goaltending, the Nashville Predators are slowly crashing down the Western Conference standings.

The Predators and Canucks are always good for a tight battle and tonight should be no different. The Predators are desperate for wins and goals, but the opposition that the Canucks have faced lately has come up dry on both.

On November 12th, Milan Lucic of the Boston Bruins ran Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres. Miller's teammates stood by picking flowers. They either couldn't or didn't want to do a thing. Lucic is a beast to handle, that is clear, but a team like the Sabres who feel they are on the rise needed to respond.

As the saying goes, the numbers rarely lie. Plus-minus is probably the statistic that is least representative of performance, but it does serve a purpose (when used in the proper context). Advanced statistics have a place in hockey, especially in terms of evaluating underperformers and overperformers. That being said, there are many simple-to-calculate and readily available statistics that are often ignored. I play a lot of fantasy hockey, and two numbers that I often pay attention to are zone starts and power play ice time. Starting in the offensive zone versus starting in the defensive zone has a huge impact on overall production (duh), while power play ice time can be the difference between a 40-point and a 60-point season for a second line forward. The two best resources on the net are Behind the Net and DobberHockey’s Frozen Pool Tools.